Effects Of High-speed Rail Research Articles

Effects of high-speed rail on intercity travels, utility and social welfare in urban agglomerations: A game-theoretic perspective

This paper investigates the effects of newly built high-speed rail on urban performances in terms of intercity travels, utility and social welfare by extending the two-city system into a representative urban agglomeration system consisting of a hub city and two peripheral cities. A framework based on the Cournot model with three interacted games is developed to characterize competitions among HSR operators in the system. Introducing HSR between peripheral cities decentralizes the intercity travel demands from the hub city to peripheral cities, and it does not always induce more that for the urban agglomeration. We find that “weight” on social welfare, substitutability, gross benefits ratio, HSR accessibility and frequency would differentially impact the hub and peripheral cities. Numerical examples and a case study incorporating all factors based on Central Plains Urban Agglomeration in China are conducted to illustrate the model, together with some policy implications.

Effect of high-speed rail on entrepreneurial activities: Evidence from China

Utilizing the launching of the high-speed railway network (HSR) in China as a quasi-natural shock, this paper examines the impact of the HSR connection on entrepreneurial activities in peripheral cities. We find that peripheral cities experience a reduction in the number of newly-registered firms after being connected to the HSR network, suggesting that the HSR network is disruptive to entrepreneurial activities in peripheral cities. In addition, the decrease in entrepreneurial activities can be explained by outflows in capital and high-skilled labor caused by HSR. Moreover, the adverse effect of HSR network is more pronounced for service sectors, peripheral cities closer to central cities, and peripheral cities in eastern or middle regions. Our work complements related studies on the consequences of the HSR network and has important implications for spurring entrepreneurial activities and economic growth.

A comparative study on the effects of high-speed rail and ordinary rail on regional economic growth—empirical research based on DlD model

Today, high-speed rail has become an indispensable means of transportation in people's production and life. However, after the opening of the high-speed rail, the development of ordinary railways has also become an object of concern, and the impact of high-speed rail on ordinary railways is worth studying from an empirical perspective. This article takes more than 2,000 counties and cities in China as the research object, using the data from 2004 to 2018, using the double difference method to analyze the impact of high-speed railway construction and ordinary railway construction and further fitting the relationship between high-speed railway and ordinary railway. The research results show that: the opening of high-speed railways has a negative effect on the regional economy; the opening of ordinary railways has a positive effect on the regional economy. By analyzing the interaction effect of the opening of high-speed rail and ordinary railway, it can be concluded that the opening of high-speed rail has a restraining effect on the impact of ordinary railway on regional economic development.

The Influencing Mechanism of High-Speed Rail on Innovation: Firm-Level Evidence from China

There is an urgent need to change the economic development mode from “resources driven” to “innovation driven” with the stagnation of the economy in China. Most existing research on the effect of high-speed rail (HSR) on firm innovation has lacked theoretical support and empirical evidence of firm innovation through knowledge spillover. This study introduces HSR as a cost coefficient to the classical heterogeneous firm model to construct a theoretical framework to determine the impact of HSR on firms’ innovation output. By matching the data of listed firms with the data of prefecture-level cities, the general difference-in-differences (DID) method is used to explore the impact of HSR on firm innovation and its mechanism. The research shows that the construction of HSR has a significant effect on the number of applied patent and authorized patents of firms and that there is a marginal increasing trend relating to the density and timing of HSR. The study found that in peripheral cities, firms in industries with rapid technological advances and highly innovative behaviors benefit more from HSR. HSR is associated with knowledge spillover within and between central and peripheral cities. It also has a heterogeneous sorting effect bounded by city size that promotes highly educated talent and the innovative output of firms that becomes significant only after the population size of a city reaches a certain threshold. HSR stimulates firm innovation mainly by improving the effect of firm resource allocation, promoting the spillover effect of innovation due to the flow and aggregation of resources, and increasing the scale effect of market expansion. Therefore, when designing innovation policies, the role of improving the construction of transportation to increase the frequency of face-to-face communication should be included, thus promoting the flow of knowledge and research collaboration.

Impact of high-speed rail on tourism in China.

The "time-space compression" effect of high-speed rail (HSR) has effectively improved the accessibility of the cities and has had a profound impact on tourism. This study explores the impact of HSR on tourism development in cities along HSR lines from the perspective of transfer of transport advantages, then evaluates the impact of HSR on tourism development using panel data of 286 cities in China from 2005 to 2013 by the difference-in-differences (DID) method. The empirical results show that the opening of HSR has significantly increased the tourism revenue and tourist arrivals. These results are still holds after considering endogenous HSR lines placement, and by various robustness checks. Further analysis of nodal effect shows that node cities experienced greater growth in tourism revenue than non-node cities. The analysis of mechanism found that tourism development in node cities relied on hotel industry, while tourism development in non-node cities relied on scenic spots industry. The findings of this study validate the role of HSR as a catalyst for urban tourism development, and reveal the comparative advantages of tourism in different cities under the influence of HSR. This study has important reference value for the development of tourism industry policies in cities along and around HSR lines.

The Effects of High-Speed Rail on the Reduction of Air Traffic Congestion

Commercial air services in Europe have experienced a spectacular growth in the last 15 years. From 1985 – 2000, the main European airports doubled their operations. Moreover, in the last 20 years, the number of regional airlines grew from 32 in 1980 to 78 in 1999.This growth has resulted in a continuous increment of delays in air services. In 1986, 12.5 percent of air flights were delayed 15 or more minutes; the figure nearly doubled to 23 percent in 1998. In summer 1999, the average delay was more than 26 minutes. It is, therefore, not surprising that the congestion costs borne by European airlines have increased from $2,600 million in 1991 to $4,900 million in 1999.This article presents results of studies undertaken for the Ministry of Public Works in Spain on the effect of new railway investments in reducing slot number needs at Madrid Airport. A total of 54,000 slots are compared to other studies carried out in France (40,000 slots in Paris-Charles de Gaulle) and Germany (20,000 slots in Frankfurt).

Modeling the Mutual Enhancement of Regional Economy and Personal Quality of Life (QOL): A Case Study on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor in India

Among the various effects of high-speed rail (HSR), a direct benefit to users has been measured as an increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) by the conventional cost–benefit analysis (CBA), which was institutionalized in the U.K. In recent years, the importance of capturing indirect benefits to non-users has also been broadly discussed. The indirect benefits of HSR can mainly be classified into two perspectives: regional economy and personal quality of life (QOL). In this study, we modeled the mutual enhancement between those effects and analyzed the indirect benefits of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail (MAHSR), which is currently under construction as the first HSR in India, an emerging country with a rapidly growing economy. The indirect benefit to the regional economy along the MAHSR corridor was estimated by industry and by zone. Additionally, the indirect benefit on personal QOL by individuals’ attributes and by zone through the mutual enhancement with the regional economy was also estimated. The personal QOL tends to show greater effects in the middle cities than those in the two metropolitan areas of Mumbai and Ahmedabad. This method can evaluate interregional disparity by identifying the differences in benefits by person, according to age, income, etc., which cannot be evaluated based on a mass measure, e.g., GDP, in the conventional CBA.

Recovery of Chinese low-cost carriers after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic

This study conducts a detailed analysis of the response of China's low-cost carriers (LCCs) to the threats posed by the pandemic from a route network perspective, aiming to explore the resilience of LCCs and Chinese airlines. Using geographic visualization and network analysis, we evaluate and compare the network connectivity of each Chinese LCC to see the change patterns, then elaborate on the network connection of Spring Airlines. The major results are: the LCC sector has not recovered, but some of them exceed the pre-pandemic levels in a less deregulated environment; different LCCs show different recovery patterns; Spring Airlines outperforms the other four LCCs in terms of network connectivity. The recovery process is supported by various external factors, such as the reduction of new confirmed COVID-19 local cases and international flights, the re-open of inter-provincial tour groups and tourism demand, the nationwide rebound activities promoted by the central government, and the supporting policies, especially new slot allocation processes issued by CAAC. The case study further indicates the effects of high-speed rail (HSR) and regional subsidy measures on the tactical actions of Springs in route planning. This paper serves as a referential case for the LCCs worldwide and has good application for the recovery of other LCCs in other countries. Moreover, the study conducted in this time window offers a chance to assess the development of Chinese airlines in a not fully deregulated aviation environment. It contributes to the debate on the theory of air network resilience.

The Effect of High-Speed Rail on Cropland Abandonment in China

This study analyzed Chinese labor-force survey data to determine the relationship between cropland abandonment and high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure. A PSM-DID approach was employed to examine 2014 and 2016 data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey and estimate the impact of HSR, from which it was found that HSR accessibility promoted cropland abandonment in local farm households with a coefficient of 0.206, that is, HSR projects led to a 20.6% increase in area of cropland abandonment and these impacts were found to be greater in hilly areas and lower in plain areas. The results also suggested that HSR accessibility could have a “pull” effect, which resulted in rural labor force shifts to non-agricultural sectors in the local region. Countermeasures and policy suggestions are given to reduce cropland abandonment.

The effects of high-speed rail on accessibility and equity: Evidence from the Turin-Lyon case-study

According to EU directives, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is adopted to assess the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR). CBA evaluates the effectiveness of such infrastructure, determining whether and to what extent the present benefits overcome the present opportunity costs. However, it fails to include equity issues, which are the key aspects of transport planning. After a general discussion of equity in HSR and its link with the concept of accessibility, this study describes some complementary methods to calculate the variation in equity. Four of them (i.e. the potential accessibility index, spatial rail equity index, Gini index, and coefficient of variation) were adopted to assess the equity impacts for the Italian municipalities along the Turin-Lyon HSR. The results of the analysis reveal that despite a generalised increase in overall accessibility, equity implications are more contradictory, with main localities gaining further benefits compared to medium- and small-sized municipalities. In particular, the latter register a further increase in peripheralization. However, since they account for 36% of the total surface but represent only approximately 1% of the total population, the overall balance for the population served by the infrastructure may be considered positive. These results are particularly useful in contexts where the acceptance of HSR is weak, as they allow policymakers to identify adequate compensation measures to reduce the gap and increase territorial cohesion.

Borrowing Power from Potential Entrants and High-Speed Rail: Entry Pattern of China’s Low-Cost Carrier

This paper investigates the impact of market structure and high-speed rail on China’s low-cost carrier Spring Airlines’ entry patterns during the pre-pandemic period. Dividing the air transport system into discrete distance segments (i.e., short-, medium- and long-haul) helps better reveal critical factors that affect the route entry of Spring. Given the existence of market power in China’s airline industry and the capacity constraints at major airports, Spring strives to enter routes that can accommodate more potential entrants without a strong response from incumbents and are connected with more concentrated or lower-capacity airports. The complementary and competition effects of high-speed rail are well-distinguished in different distance ranges.

Effects of high-speed rail on regional accessibility

Effects of high-speed rail on regional accessibility

The Effects of High-Speed Rail on Manufacturing and Service Employment: Evidence from Spain

The Effects of High-Speed Rail on Manufacturing and Service Employment: Evidence from Spain

Effects of High-Speed Rail on Sustainable Development of Urban Tourism: Evidence from Discrete Choice Model of Chinese Tourists’ Preference for City Destinations

In China, the opening of high-speed rails (HSR) brings significant changes to the source-destination spatial distance, the accessibility of destinations, and the spatial structure of tourist flows in each region, exerting varied HSR effects on different types of cities. Against this backdrop, it is meaningful to deeply explore tourists’ preference for city destinations in the light of HSR effects. The exploration could contribute greatly to the planning, marketing, management, and sustainable development of urban tourism. This paper takes Xiangtan and Yueyang as typical cases of the diffusion effect and the corridor effect of HSR. Firstly, the factors affecting destination choice were identified, and the attribute levels were configured, forming multiple virtual alternatives. Next, questionnaire surveys were carried out to collect tourists’ selections between each pair of alternatives. Further, a discrete choice model was constructed to assign a weight to each factor, reflecting its importance to tourists’ decision-making regarding their destination selection and to disclose the law of tourists’ preferences for destinations. The results showed that (1) Under the HSR diffusion effect, the top three factors affecting tourists’ preference for destinations in Xiangtan are convenience, connection time, and popularity; under HSR corridor effect, the top three factors affecting the tourists’ preference for destinations in Yueyang are reputation, convenience, and leisure and reception facilities (LRFs). (2) The destination preference is closely associated with personal features like gender, income, occupation, and fellow travelers. Tourists with different personal features give different attention to the various influencing factors. The research findings provide a reference for the sustainable development of urban tourism.

Does high-speed rail stimulate shareholder activism by small investors in China?

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of high-speed rail (HSR) introduction in China on small investors’ on-site participation in shareholders’ general meetings, which is used to measure the ‘inverse distance–participation syndrome’. We find that HSR introductionhas a significantly positive effect on small investors’ on-site attendance. The poorer the transportation infrastructure connecting other cities before HSR introduction, the shorter the distance between HSR station and the firm’s headquarters after HSR introduction, and the more nonlocal investors the firm has, the higher the attendance rate. Small shareholder activism that arises with HSR introduction results in a higher likelihood of proposal rejection, fewer tunnelling by large shareholders, and less earnings manipulation. Overall, our results show that HSR introduction reduces monitoring costs for small shareholders and increases their on-site participation. Our findings provide important implications for policymakers on encouraging small shareholder activism.

Effects of high-speed rail on the spatial agglomeration of producer services: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

Effects of high-speed rail on the spatial agglomeration of producer services: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

Green Growth Effects of High-Speed Rail in China: The Role of Industrial Transformation

ABSTRACT This paper presents the first empirical attempt to examine the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) and industrial transformation on China’s ecological efficiency (EE), using a data set of 251 cities during 2003–2016. Results show that instituting HSR is beneficial to green growth; a one-point increase in HSR leads to approximately 2% growth in EE. The potential mechanism test indicates that HSR significantly improved EE through industrial transformation, and did so economically. We also found that HSR strengthened impacts of static and dynamic industrial transformation on EE. However, the productivity growth effect of HSR was not statistically significant.

The Impact of High-Speed Rail on the Spatial Structure of Chinese Urban Agglomerations

This paper measures the spatial evolution of urban agglomerations to understand be er the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) construction, based on panel data from fi ve major urban agglomerations in China for the period 2004–2015. It is found that there are signi ficant regional diff erences of HSR impacts. The construction of HSR has promoted population and economic diff usion in two advanced urban agglomerations, namely the Yang e River Delta and Pearl River Delta, while promoting population and economic concentration in two relatively less advanced urban agglomerations, e.g. the middle reaches of the Yang e River and Chengdu–Chongqing. In terms of city size, HSR promotes the economic proliferation of large cities and the economic concentration of small and medium-sized cities along its routes. HSR networking has provided a new impetus for restructuring urban spatial systems. Every region should optimize the industrial division with strategic functions of urban agglomeration according to local conditions and accelerate the construction of inter-city intra-regional transport network to maximize the eff ects of high-speed rail across a large regional territory.

Spatial Equity and High Speed Trains: The Example of France

This paper is aiming at qualifying the high speed trains in operation in France, with regards to spatial equity. To that end we begin by examining some of the various concepts enclosed in this polysemic word. Increased accessibility was one objective of the development of high speed rail. Thus we estimate a simple model to measure the possible effect of high speed rail on French regions. We did find a positive effect on GDP per capita and demographic growth. In a sense this is because they are growth-promoting that High speed lines are unfair. Beyond that, the pricing system set up by the train operator is based on yield management and intermodal competition. This results in a peculiar and singularly unfair pricing structure.

Is the High-Speed Rail Opening Environmentally Friendly? Taking the Difference-in-Differences Test in Jiangsu, China

In view of rapid development of high-speed rail, the relationship between high-speed rail and air pollution needs to be tested and determined. Most research studies focused on the impact of high-speed rail on environmental pollution and just viewed high-speed rail as a control variable, which lacked a direct study on this relationship. Also, these rarely involved regional research, which is short of pertinence and insufficient understanding of regional issues. Therefore, based on the difference-in-differences (DID) model which is a natural experiment evaluation method, this study examined the impact of high-speed rail opening on air pollution by using the panel data of Jiangsu province, China, from the year of 2000 to 2017. The empirical results showed that the opening of Jiangsu high-speed rail, which increases cities’ good day significantly by 21.5%, has inhibitory effect on air pollution. Among control variables, there is no inverted “U” relationship between the economic development level and air pollution. Personal income and urbanization significantly improve air pollution, whereas foreign direct investment exacerbates it. And the results are still valid after robustness tests, including trend test and counterfactual test. Moreover, this study explores the relationship between the degree of reducing pollution caused by high-speed rail and the location of cities, which found that the opening of high-speed rail can greatly improve air pollution of areas in central city circle. Finally, it is found that when high-speed rail and other possible pollution items coexist, the improved effect of high-speed rail on air pollution is still obvious. Therefore, in order to exert the mitigating effect of high-speed rail on air pollution, it is necessary to rationally plan high-speed railway lines and develop the high-speed railways in cities closer to Shanghai.